1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical instrument, particularly to a surgical apparatus for supporting a surgical operator in carrying out medical treatment on a diseased part.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been a manipulator system for surgical treatment described in JP-A-08-071072 as an apparatus for supporting surgery. In the system, there is installed a manipulator for surgery for carrying out observation and treatment of an in vivo tissue portion, manipulating means for handling the manipulator for surgery, controlling means for controlling operation of the, manipulator for surgery based on manipulation data from the manipulating means and parameter variable means capable of arbitrarily changing control parameters necessary for carrying out operational control of the manipulator for surgery. According to the constitution, the control parameters can be changed to a state which is easy to manipulate for a surgical operator, promotion of manipulating performance can be achieved, particularly, when the control parameters are changed during surgical operation, various manipulation can be carried out and a variation in the manipulation is enlarged.
In actual surgical operation, the constitution of a surgical apparatus needs to change in accordance with a difference in users and a difference in cases. Further, such a need can be caused even at a site of operation where surgical operation is in progress. For example, it is necessary to change system constitution such as increasing or decreasing a number of operational manipulators adaptively to circumstances in accordance with a difference in cases or a situation of a site of operation or changing measuring instruments used.
When the system constitution, for example, a constitution in devices such as, for example, operational manipulators is changed as described above, or, conversely, when different operation is carried out while the same system constitution or the same constituent elements remain as they are, naturally, unless description of a procedure for operating these, that is, operational control program per se for each element is changed, function of the element and accordingly, that of a total of the apparatus cannot be achieved or there may produce a possibility in which the treatment cannot be continued depending on cases. For example, an operational control program of a manipulator for incising a diseased part and that of a manipulator for positioning a suction tube naturally differ from each other and even with the same manipulator for incision, in the case of incision by laser beam, positioning control of a tip of an apparatus becomes important since it is brought into a noncontact state in respect of the diseased part, however, when incision by mechanical force, that is, incision by using a scalpel is carried out, the scalpel is brought into contact with the diseased part and accordingly, the above-described positioning control cannot be operated correctly and therefore, an operational control program described based on an algorithm of force control different therefrom is needed. However, conventionally, such a program per se is not changed dynamically and automatically and the operation is persistently dependent on instruction of a user.
Further, in the conventional art, there is no notion of or authentication of a user and a surgical apparatus cannot be informed of who is a current user. Therefore, setting of apparatus inherent to a user needs to carry out by the user per se. Further, a person who is not a proper user cannot be prevented from using a surgical apparatus.
It is an object of the invention to provide a surgical apparatus for automatically and dynamically changing a constitution of a system and operation of respective elements.
In order to achieve the above-described object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a surgical apparatus used in a surgical operation, the surgical apparatus comprising devices having controlling means, supervisory controlling means having communicating means among the devices, and operational procedure description storing means for storing an operational procedure description describing operational procedures of the devices, wherein the supervisory controlling means includes detecting means for detecting constitutions of the devices and transmits the operational procedure description in conformity with the constitutions of the devices detected by the detecting means to the respective devices by the communicating means.
In order to achieve the above-described object, according to other aspect of the invention, there is provided a surgical apparatus comprising a plurality of devices respectively having controlling means including devices comprising operational manipulators for operating tools used in a surgical operation, operational instruction inputting means for instructing operations of the devices for operating the tools, supervisory controlling means having communicating means among the plurality of devices for generally controlling the devices, and operational procedure description storing means for storing an operational procedure description describing operational procedures of the plurality of devices, wherein the supervisory controlling means includes detecting means for detecting constitutions of the devices and transmits the operational procedure description in conformity with the constitutions of the devices detected by the detecting means to the respective devices by the communicating means.
The above-described detecting means may detect presence or absence of use of the devices, tools provided to the devices and/or content of operation of the devices as the constitutions of the devices.
Further, the above-described detecting means may detect the constitutions of the devices by request from the side of the devices to the supervisory controlling means by interruption when a power source is inputted to the surgical apparatus or the surgical apparatus is reset.
Further, the above-described detecting means may detect the constitutions of the devices by request from the devices to the supervisory controlling means by interruption when there causes a change in the constitutions of the devices.
According to the surgical apparatus, the constitutions of the devices are automatically and dynamically detected by the supervisory controlling means, operational procedure description can be set to the devices and accordingly, the system constitution and the constitutions and the operation of the devices can be changed automatically and dynamically. Thereby, an error in view of software of transmitting erroneous operational procedure description to the devices can be prevented and further, an error in view of hardware in the constitutions of the devices can be discovered beforehand. Particularly, the surgical operators are not troubled with various settings while the surgical operation is in progress which is effective in preventing erroneous setting.
Further, an operational procedure description of default may be provided to the devices and when the operational procedure description is not transmitted from the supervisory controlling means, the devices may execute the operational procedure description of default. Thereby, a minimum processing can continuously be executed and emergency measure becomes feasible.
Further, authenticating means for authenticating the users may be provided and priorities of use of the devices in respect of a plurality of users may be set by the supervisory controlling means. Thereby, the surgical operation can firmly be shared by the plurality of surgical operators and a high degree of the surgical operation can be carried out. Further, by providing the authenticating means, the supervisory controlling means automatically determines the users and can set the operational procedure description exclusive for the users to the devices.
Further, authenticating means for authenticating the users may be prepared, the supervisory controlling means may determine the priorities provided to the plurality of users in respect of using the devices and the operational procedure description prepared for one of the users having the highest priority may be transmitted to the device. Thereby, the operation of the devices becomes easy to handle by the users.
Further, there may be provided means having data in respect of a constitution of a device of default with regard to a case for presenting a difference between the constitution of the device of default and the constitution of an actually set device. Thereby, an error in the constitution of the device becomes easy to discover and the surgical operators can be supported by presenting data with regard to the above device constitution.